While Shelter is generally effective action flick, it lacks the same punch as Statham's best.
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The Jason Statham movie machine is pretty reliable at this point. Another year comes around. Statham puts out another R-rated action movie early in the year. Rinse. Repeat. And likely make back your budget. But there's a larger question at play, at least for me. What makes the good versions of these movies so good? And what makes the middling ones feel so underwhelming? And Statham's latest, a decent but not great action flick, is a perfect example.
The Setup
Statham plays Michael Mason, a former government assassin who now lives a solitary life on a small Scottish island. But when Jessie, a young girl who delivers supplies to Mason gets caught in a storm, the ex-operative unintentionally ends up back on MI6's radar...and targeted for assassination. Now to keep Jessie safe, Mason will have to reawaken the dormant killer.
It's almost comical how much this movie uses the same exact baseline for Statham's last two movies. He always plays a former killer who's either quit or reformed, and is brought back in via a personal connection or vendetta. But there's a few wrinkles that make each of these movies slightly different. So let's go through the building blocks and see how this one stacks up.
The Character: How Bad-Ass Is He?
The standard Statham character is a bad-ass one man army. And because he's hitting middle age, nowadays he's also retired and perhaps the origin point for an assassin program that's kept going without him. Jason Bourne in everything but name.
The pinnacle of this type, in my opinion, is somewhere between his character in The Transporter franchise, Frank Drebin and the titular Beekeeper from The Beekeeper. A name, that as soon as it's dropped causes anyone who understands his history to at the very least, slighy wet themselves.
Mason is a step or two below those guys. Part of this is because he seems to be more emotionally vulnerable that these other characters, but being project zero for an assassination program that's now trying, unsuccessfully, to off him, is pretty bad-ass. But he's not quite the unstoppable force you see in these other movies where trained guys more or less turn into punching bags.
Mason is a step or two below those guys. Part of this is because he seems to be more emotionally vulnerable that these other characters, but being project zero for an assassination program that's now trying, unsuccessfully, to off him, is pretty bad-ass. But he's not quite the unstoppable force you see in these other movies where trained guys more or less turn into punching bags.
How Righteous Is He?
Shelter has a strange blend of things going on because this plot is more or less like the original Bourne movie but with the love interest being replaced by a young girl whose family is all dead. So whatever you need to do to keep her alive is inherently justifiable.
What the movie kinda skips over, weirdly, is that the people being sent to take Mason out aren't bad guys. Their just following orders from the government to kill, whom they've been led to believe, is a presumed-dead terrorist.
In the Bourne movies, something that's really effective is that Bourne's most deadly and pitched battles versus skirmishes where he wipes folks out but doesn't kill them, are against men just like himself. Assassins being used by higher ups for allegedly moral aims who are really sending men to die. The lingering line being Clive Owen's dying line "Look at what they make you give."
Hell we've even got an old white man trying to kill Mason while a younger woman tries to find Mason and bring him in without killing him.
Cut to Shelter with Statham's Mason fighting with a younger version of who he once was, without a hint of trying to convince this guy that this isn't the way.
So while it's easy to justify killing assassins who a bad man would keep sending after at oldest, a high school aged girl, it lacks the same punch at killing off mercenaries and scammers or human traffickers.
In the Bourne movies, something that's really effective is that Bourne's most deadly and pitched battles versus skirmishes where he wipes folks out but doesn't kill them, are against men just like himself. Assassins being used by higher ups for allegedly moral aims who are really sending men to die. The lingering line being Clive Owen's dying line "Look at what they make you give."
Hell we've even got an old white man trying to kill Mason while a younger woman tries to find Mason and bring him in without killing him.
Cut to Shelter with Statham's Mason fighting with a younger version of who he once was, without a hint of trying to convince this guy that this isn't the way.
So while it's easy to justify killing assassins who a bad man would keep sending after at oldest, a high school aged girl, it lacks the same punch at killing off mercenaries and scammers or human traffickers.
The Action: What's Unique?
The best Jason Statham action movies aren't defined by the building blocks. Almost all of them have the same makeup as a standard action video game. We've got the stealth section, the firefight MMA section, the giant drag out fight that likely includes the destruction of a home and using household items as a weapon, and a series of non-lethal takedowns on folks who don't know better.
And to be very honest, we've seen almost all of this before in more exciting forms.
There's a crowded club section that lacks the visual dynamics of Safe. The drag-out fight is pretty good but was done better in about 3-4 other Statham movies. The non-lethal section and stealth sections were done with more panache and fun in The Beekeper. And while the dynamics of the car chase are pretty good, The Transporter flicks are both more exciting and more absurd.
There's a crowded club section that lacks the visual dynamics of Safe. The drag-out fight is pretty good but was done better in about 3-4 other Statham movies. The non-lethal section and stealth sections were done with more panache and fun in The Beekeper. And while the dynamics of the car chase are pretty good, The Transporter flicks are both more exciting and more absurd.
It doesn't mean the movie is bad, or that the action is bad. It's more that there's nothing here to make this movie stand out from Statham's filmography, especially in the last five years. Something in this movie needed to be bigger or more intriguing to make it stick in your mind.
As it stands it's a decent, but mostly forgettable Jason Statham vehicle.
As it stands it's a decent, but mostly forgettable Jason Statham vehicle.
The Verdict: Middle of The Road
While Shelter is generally effective action flick, it lacks the same punch as Statham's best. 6/10
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